


To find a voice

by ZenHeyerdall



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, still sucking at summaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZenHeyerdall/pseuds/ZenHeyerdall
Summary: A little dwarven girl found her new family and home but it wasn't complete, not until they found out a strange tiefling wandering in the woods.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf & Toya
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	To find a voice

Toya remembered her life before being taken to the carnival by Gustav, she remembered the hunger, the cold and the loneliness, she remembered singing until her voice ran out just to gain a couple of coins and she remembered what it was like to feel that the world had abandoned her.

That is why he liked the circus, she had only been there a few months and felt that it could be part of something she had forgotten. Everyone cared for her and she was very comfortable with Kylre's presence and with the fact that she could snuggle up if she had nightmares by his side at night, she knew he would protect her from harm. But she was scared, afraid of not doing it right, of not being enough or that they would find a better singer and she would be left on the street again, s he didn't want to go back to that, so she worked very hard to avoid that.

Kylre used to comfort her when she felt this way and she felt protected. It was really nice.

Eventually, as the weeks went by and she began to sing for their audience , she began to feel more comfortable and content with her new family.

But she still had to meet one more member of her family.

She hadn't been in the circus for two months when it happened.

They had camped that night near a forest, Toya couldn't say which was because she had never been there but she had heard that hopefully in a couple of days they would reach their destination so she knew that she would soon act again. She had been asleep in her wagon when it happened but next day she was told about what happened at first.

What woke her up was the sound of a commotion outside the small, makeshift camp they had set up. Toya poked her head in to see what was happening, what if they were attacked? And then she saw Bo walk past her.

"Bo?" she asked when she saw him.

"Toya, go back to bed, everything is fine" said the half orc.

"Is everything alright?" the girl insisted.

"Yeah, don't worry, Gustav and Desmond are taking care of it, you stay with Kylre and rest"

Toya wasn't sure if that was true, she knew something was going on but if it was a real danger she imagined that Bo would have told her otherwise or would have asked Kylre to protect her …

She didn't know how long it took her to fall asleep again, her intention was to be attentive to see if she heard something else but in the end the dream received her again and when she woke up it was already daytime.

When she started to move around the camp, looking for Bo, Gustav, Desmond or Ornna, there were other members of the circus starting to prepare everything for another day of traveling while they talked among themselves, the girl got to catch something that was repeated over and over "a tiefling". Toya ended up locating Gustav's tent that she decided to enter after telling him it was her, thinking that the half-elf would be there.

But he wasn't.

Instead she saw that there was a figure curled up at the end of the tent , dressed in clothes that clearly weren't his own and were too big for him.

Toya had never seen anyone like him.

The stranger has horns and a tail, he's lavender with hair that is darker than his skin, his eyes are red as blood, completely red, and they look at her wide open when they see her enter the place. Toya also can see the dread in hisgaze, whoever that person is, it's afraid of her.

"Hi" the girl greeted him. Perhaps this person was a new member of the circus and was waiting for Gustav to introduce him to the rest. "My name is Toya, who are you?"

Hearing her voice he tries to move away from her a little but he's already at the back of the tent and can't go anywhere. She doesn't understand why he is afraid of her, she is a little girl, the only thing she knows how to do is sing, she is not a danger to anyone.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you" she assures him in a soft voice.

“Empty” this time she recives an answer .

I's a voice ... she is not sure how to define it ... it is as if he hadn't spoken for a long time and found it difficult to raise his voice ... or like it took him a lot of effort to do so ... it seemed broken ... worn out ... she had never heard anyone speak that way.

"How ... did you say MT?" Toya doesn't understand very well what he said.

"Empty" repeats the other in a tone that makes the little dwarven girl's heart shrink.

"Toya" Gustav's voice from behind startles her. He doesn't sound angry but she's afraid that he will be upset that she entered without his permission. “Ornna was looking for you, don't you want to have breakfast? Come, let our new friend rest ”

Gently Gustav takes the girl out of the tent, but not before casting a tired and sad look at the purple man.

"Who is he?" Toya asks .

"We don't know, darling... we believe that something has happened to him and we are taking care of him, who knows, when he recovers maybe he can tell us who he is," the half elven answered, taking the girl with Ornna to breakfast.

It's there among the adults when she hears what happened while she was sleeping.

That purple and horned man was a tiefling, Toya has heard of them in rumors in town( hate-filled rumors about how turbulent and troublesome they are) but she has never seen one in person. They found him wandering in the woods, his clothes torn, bloody and full of dirt. He didn't speak, the only thing he said was that, "MT" and he had no belongings that could indicate who he was, where he came from or what had happened to him. So Gustav decided to call him that, perhaps it helped him remember, he wasn't sure but it was better than nothing.

Bo asked Toya to let the nameless tiefling rest and not scare him, he was surely very confused by everything that was happening to him and it was best not to overwhelm him. At the moment only Gustav or Desmond approached him and very carefully.

Toya could understand that because when she felt bad she didn't want to be bothered until she felt good, so she did what she was told. Hopefully he would feel better soon, she thought innocently.

A couple of days later the first show came, Toya was nervous, as always when an opening night came but nothing strange happened, she sang as well as ever, everyone cheered and both Gustav and Desmond said they were proud of her and Toya couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.

The only thing out of the ordinary was that when she returned to her tent to sleep next to Kylre, she saw MT sitting outside the tent that he shared with Gustav, he was holding a bowl of very hot Ornna's soup and he was frowning at him. As if I didn't know what to do with it. She suposses that in those moments the half-elf must be inside the tent because during those days they didn't leave him alone, MT, for the moment, shouldn't be alone.

And then the tiefling sipped at the steaming bowl, causing it to burn him and drop it. Toya then ran to help him and offered him a handkerchief, but of course, MT got scared when he saw her.

"You have to be careful," she said softly. She didn't know if he understood her but she at least wanted him to know that she wasn't going to hurt him “Do you wann know a trick Ornna taught me? You have to blow before bringing the spoon to your mouth "but the confusion on MT's face made her sigh understanding that the tiefling didn't know what she was talking about" I have to go to sleep, you should also do the same. Good night, MT ”

The days went by and with them came more shows and performances, more nerves and applause but the result was the same and every night, Toya saw MT outside sitting in the entrance of Gustav's tent, sometimes he was alone, others the half elf was with him..

One day he said one thing that surprised her.

"You know? Whenever you sing, he leaves the tent to listen to you, I think he likes your voice ”

Toya thought that MT didn't understand her, perhaps he didn't, perhaps he was just looking for some comfort, she could understand that because for her, in the days that she had had nothing, only music and her voice had helped her stay alive.

Maybe he was just lost, like her at the time until she found her new family. Toya thought that maybe she could help him, that together they could be happy again and smile.

So every night regardless of whether there was a show or not, the girl approached MT and after speaking a bit and receiving the same word from him, she sang a song to him in a low voice and was one of the few times in which he didn't seem to want to run away.

Until one day, she saw him smile and Toya knew that although MT couldn't tell her anything other than those two letters, that smile indicated that he was grateful and maybe happy, she wanted to believe that he was happy.

Then MT officially became MT and a member of his family according to Gustav, he had managed to obtain some identity papers for the tiefling that still didn't say much more about himself but it was better than nothing.

Gustav had invented a game for the road to teach MT the words that he seemed to have forgotten existed, he used to point to something while they were in the wagon and tell him what it was. Toya decided that this game was fun and at camp she started bringing him things she could find to teach him colors, numbers and new words.

MT, after all, was like a baby, or so she had heard Mona and Yuli talk, and perhaps he had to be taught everything again or at least something that would help him remember who he was. Although at that time they didn't know, it was never going to happen but eventually everyone's patience was rewarded when MT spoke for the first time and said something that wasn't that two letters.

They just had to wait a couple more months for everything to be covered in white and Wintercrest to get closer.

It was winter and it was terribly cold, Toya had never coped well with it when she lived on the streets but now she had warm clothes and food and a family to play with in the snow and have a good time and it was the nicest winter that she remembered.

That day Toya was alone with Kylre because the adultos were setting up the tents and she couldn't help much in that, so she had entertained herself in making a small pile of snowballs that of course she planned to throw at everyone when she had the chance. She was focused on that task and didn't notice anyone approaching.

"Cold ..." said a voice behind her. A voice that was familiar but she wasn't used to hearing something that was the same over and over from it.

Toya was scared, she let out a little cry that alerted those who were closer and looked at the owner of the voice that had the guilt engraved on his face since his attention hadn't been to scare her.

MT was there, behind her in the snow, shivering from the cold because he hadn't put on his jacket (well, it wasn't his as such but from Bo but for now it was what they had managed to get from him since he didn't seem to say what he needed or wanted).

"MT?" Toya wanted to believe that she had misheard and the voice belonged to someone else.

"Toya ... cold ..." he repeated this time saying her name.

The girl felt a slight surge of joy when she heard the tiefling say her name and say that he was cold, even if it was in a very rudimentary way. He was talking! Toya smiled and offered her hand to the other to take him inside Gustav's tent and force him to put his coat on, but when he was a little warmer, the little dwarven girl had an idea.

"Let's go see Gustav, okay? “She knew that the half-elf was going to be thrilled to see MT talking.

MT nodded and was guided by the girl to the main tent of the circus where Gustav was with Desmond discussing some details of the show. The two men when they saw her by the hand of MT looked at her confused.

"Toya, is everything okay?" Desmond asked her.

"MT can talks! He has said my name and that he was cold ... well he only said cold but ... he has spoken!" she said with a smile and then turned to look at the tiefling - "What's my name?"

"... Toya ..." he whispered. "Gustav ... Desmond ... cold …"

"Well I be dammed " said the second "If I don't hear it I don't believe it"

"This is fantastic," Gustav said with a smile that was almost identical to that of a proud father. "This is wonderful MT, not that you are clearly cold but you are starting to speak"

"Do you think he is recovering?" Desmond asked his associate.

"I think MT is improving," the smiling half-elf informed them, "and I think it will speak more and more soon."

And so it was, from that moment the MT vocabulary started to improve and getting richer to the point that Desmond jokingly complained that there was no way that the tiefling would shut up and that he even missed that time when he didn't it said more than two letters.

Nobody took him seriously, not even MT himself, who over time chose his name, Mollymauk Tealeaf , and began to show signs of having a strident personality that went with such a strange name and a style when it came to dressing that even stood out. among the circus people.

Toya was happy for him, perhaps he wasn't going to recover the life he had before the carnival but now he had a new life and a new family with which to create new memories. Also, Mollymauk was always at every performance to hear her sing and was always there to tell her some ridiculously strange and funny story to make her laugh.

Together they had found their voice and ways to have fun and smile again and Toya, who didn''t remember her family found a new brother.

And a year later, an scary older sister with a soft voice , so her family was completed.

Until one day a man died in one of her performances, came back to life to attack the public and her family fell apart because of her.

Toya found a new one with Ornna and Bo but she missed everyone, especially Molly, Kylre and Gustav

But she thought that maybe one day they will see each other once again.

  
  


  
  


  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I kinda had this idea on my mind for almost a month but didn't have time to write but since my work schedule changed ( once again) I've been able to write.
> 
> Fun fact: It was supposed to end with Toya learning about Molly's death but it happens that I can't write angst when it comes to this purple tiefling, I end up feeling really guilty so I removed for the original oneshot.
> 
> Since english isn't my first languaje and I wrote this at almost 6 am will be mistakes.
> 
> So, nothing more, thanks for reading and see you!


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